LONDON — Many were tagging the North Laurel Lady Jaguars as the team to beat in the 13th Region coming into the season right after the buzzer sounded at Rupp Arena when Sacred Heart was crowned state champions.
North Laurel coach Eddie Mahan liked his team’s chances before the 2023-24 campaign tipped off but he also knew he just graduated one of the best players to ever wear the green, blue and white in Emily Sizemore.
He also knew teams such as Corbin, Knox Central, Jackson County, and South Laurel’s weren’t going to be pushovers either.
But when the dust settled at The Arena on Saturday night, the Lady Jaguars came away as repeat regional champions after upending Corbin, 61-49.
“You don’t replace a player like Emily Sizemore, but we have always believed in the next girl up mentality,” Mahan said. “I knew last summer though that we had a chance of being really good. When we went to the Coastal Carolina team camp and I seen just how well this team jelled on and off the floor, I knew this team could be special.
“There is no secret recipe to success as at the end of the day, it takes two things to be great,” he added. “The first obviously is the talent. It will never be possible to win without the players who work hard to develop their skills and athleticism to be the best possible players they can be. The next is the hard part, as in today’s culture, it goes against what most young players are taught. The tough thing is getting players to sacrifice for the team. With players and their parents today, most are too concerned with the spotlight of stats. What I seen last summer told me that this team just might be willing to do just that. As it turned out, I didn’t even realize just how close this group would be. They gave up stats and awards for just the possibility of winning and it has ended up paying off so far.”
Mahan didn’t expect his team to get off to a slow start to tip the season off, but he felt like his Lady Jaguars would get better as the season progressed.
“I knew this year was going to be a year that we would be much better in the second part of the season than the first,” he admitted. “The Corbin game in the WYMT Mountain Classic Championship was a wake up call in that it showed that we still had a long way to go in our attention to detail on the court and our conditioning as well. I knew the conditioning would get better as the season progressed but our attention to detail was going to have to be a focal point going forward.
“I think the two biggest turning points in the season though was when we played some great teams in Florida during our Christmas Break. It showed us not only could we be good if we could be great this season. We still had a few lessons to learn like the Ryle game. The physical play we experienced in that game spotlighted yet another issue that needed to be addressed before postseason started.”
Mahan also felt the key to his team’s success would be the development of some players throughout the season.
“I knew coming into the season that our success was going to hinge on the development of a few different players progressing,” he admitted. “Brooke Nichelson is one of the most underrated players I have ever seen in the 13th Region. She has an unbelievable amount of athleticism and her skill set just keeps getting better. One of her greatest attributes is that she truly is a team first player but one of her biggest weaknesses is that she does not know just how good that she is. I knew she was going to have to develop the confidence in herself to become a player we could rely on.
“Another player I knew throughout the years had shown flashes of being great but could not be consistent enough was Chloe McKnight,” Mahan added. “I think she has now shown she is able and confident enough to be the dominant post we needed this season. Those two were going to have to be our corner stones. However, I knew if we were going to be great, players like Mariella Claybrook, Haley Combs and Emma Carl would have to develop throughout the season to fill the needs we had with our team. It’s not often you get to bring a 6’2 freshman off the bench, who already has multiple college offers like Mariella has. With all of those players though, I knew we needed the senior leadership and play of Jaelyn Black and Gracie McKnight. Those two have done everything they could to make sure our team was in good position to win both as players and leaders.”
When Mahan took over as head coach at North Laurel in 2011, he took the reins of a program that won only nine games Mahan’s first year and then six games during his second season.
But as the seasons progressed, North Laurel’s program continued to improve, and is now the winningest program in the 13th Region since 2018.
“I know when we were starting out in 2011, it seemed we wouldn’t never make it to this point but I knew it was coming if we could just develop the culture. We have sold out to being the best not just team but program around.
“We don’t want to just be good every few years but every year,” he added. “We want to send players to college to play and we want to win championships. We have some good middle school teams coming up and we hope to just keep building.”
